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Level 1

33 points

HP Printer Drivers 5.1 are malware?

Sometime in the last few days, either Apple or HP seems to have broken most of HP's printers for the Mac--if the comments on the HP forums are any indication.

I have two MacOS systems, one is 10.14.6 and the other is 10.15.7. Both stopped printing at the same time. The Error Log message on both computers was "[cups-deviced] (hpfax) crashed on signal 9!"

The 10.14.6 machine will queue the print job, but never sends it to the printer. This even happens when trying to print a test page from the the Apple "PrinterProxy (571)".

The 10.15.7 machine will not queue the print job, instead it says that some HP driver file will harm my computer, and then proceeds to report the incident to Apple.

I got the same behavior before and after installing the file downloaded from HP's web site and recommended here in an apple KB article, "HPPrinterDivers5.1.dmg". I was asked if I wanted to install that driver, since it had an outdated certificate--I did anyway.

This happens on two Mac laptops with two different OS versions, and happened at the same time. I can still se the web page served by the printer over my network, and I can still print test pages from that web page (which are generated internally in the printer).

Posted on Oct 23, 2020 11:25 AM

Best reply

SteveSgt Author

Level 1

33 points

Posted on Oct 23, 2020 1:08 PM

Here's an update I saw on the HP forum [ https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Setup-Software-Drivers/HP-Utility-fails-with-Code-Signature-Invalid-MacOS-10-15-7/m-p/7824870/highlight/true#M200138 ] by StevePSplusB209:

This is an HP software signing issue that cannot be fixed or worked-around by users.

An HP developer must

- re-sign the HP Utility code using a valid certificate authority

- re-create the installer package and sign it

- post the updated installer package on HP Support

An experienced developer could do this in a hour or two. I know, I used to do this (retired driver writer)

This may take a week or so for HP to fix ... unless everyone screams REALLY LOUDLY since all of our perfectly functional printers are now just warm electric bricks.

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HP Printer Drivers 5.1 are malware?

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